■ United States
North Carolina wins round
A federal appeals court has ruled that North Carolina was entitled to reclaim the state's original copy of the US Constitution's Bill of Rights, seized three years ago from two men in Connecticut. The copy was one of 14 made in 1789. It had been missing since it was stolen from the state capitol at the end of the Civil War and privately sold to various people for nearly 140 years until antiques dealer Wayne Pratt and businessman Robert Matthews bought it in 2000 for US$200,000. In 2003, an FBI agent posing as a museum buyer pretended to purchase the paper from Pratt and Matthews for US$5 million, and seized the document with a court order.
RSS